A Regional Approach for Earthquake Early Warning in South West Iberia: A Feasibility Study

Abstract

A Spanish ALERT-ES project was set up to study the feasibility of setting\nup an earthquake early warning system to warn of potentially damaging earthquakes\nthat can occur in the Cape of San Vicente (SV)–Gulf of Cadiz (GC) area,\nlocated in the south west of the Iberian Peninsula, such as the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.\nFour events, located close to the epicenters of the largest earthquakes in the area, were\nsimulated using different seismic software packages (Earthworm, SeisComP3, and\nPRobabilistic and Evolutionary early warning SysTem [PRESTo]) and the errors were\nanalyzed. In addition, a study about the blind zone and the lead time at six selected\ntargets was carried out. The results show a blind zone in the southwest corner of Portugal\nfor SV earthquakes and also a blind zone in the coastal area, from Portimao to\nCadiz, for the GC earthquakes.